Learn History - The History of Football

Football began from very diverse sources. In the first half of the nineteenth century there were many versions of the game, with very different rules. Yet by the end of the century, it was an organised and codified sport.

This assignment asks you to investigate how and why these changes took place and to trace the development of the sport in the twentieth century.

There are five questions. You will answer them by referring to the sources in your booklet, and by using your own knowledge.

Before you start, you should read about:

a) popular entertainment and leisure in Britain in the first half of the nineteenth century. (1801-1850)

b) the origins of football in this time

c) how the social and economic changes in the 1800s affected sport

d) the development of professional sport between 1850 and 1900.

Study this PowerPoint Presentation

The Sources - study them carefully.

SOURCE A: from ‘They Saw it Happen, An Anthology of Eyewitness Accounts of Events in British History 1689-1897

To the historian, Association Football is an important achievement of Victorian England. The movement began in the public schools. They took the traditional mob scrimmage and turned it into a game of remarkable skill. The origins of the game spread from the public schools to the universities and then to London where the great amateur clubs organised the game and launched the English cup. From London it spread to the industrial north and midlands, largely pioneered by public school men. Muscular Christianity laid the foundations of many of the great clubs of today: Aston Villa sprang

from a Methodist Sunday School.

SOURCE B: from ‘The Illustrated London News’, March 1891, showing the football challenge cup match between Blackburn Rovers and Notts. County.

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to enlarge it.

SOURCE C: a contemporary account of the crowd disturbances at the 1909 Scottish Cup Final replay between Glasgow Celtic and Glasgow Rangers.

Most of the crowd expected extra time, but extra time was possible only for a second replay. Some of the crowd became unsettled and spilled on to the pitch. The police moved in and the violence escalated into a full-blown riot. Fires were started and attempts were made to burn down the pay boxes using whisky as fuel. When the fire brigade arrived, they were attacked and their hoses cut. Hundreds of people were injured.

SOURCE D (i): from an interview with an historian:

The earliest professional teams came from the industrial towns of the Midlands and the North. There was less interest in professional football in the south of England at the end of the nineteenth century.

SOURCE D (ii): Football League tables.

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to enlarge.

SOURCE E: from ‘The Twenties’, by Alan Jenkins, published in 1974

Soccer was still one of the few games at which the British could beat foreigners; but it was much more local rivalries that drew the cloth-capped crowds to the big matches. It was a swifter game than it had been before the war. The new Wembley Stadium drew crowds in special trains from all over the country ‘up for the Cup’. And its first Cup Final was nearly a disaster.

As Bolton Wanderers prepared to meet West Ham on 28 April 1923, the 91,000 or so ticket holders were swollen by hordes of people who rushed the turnstiles, broke through the barriers and steamed onto the ground. Soon a thousand people had been injured, sixty quite seriously. Fortunately the mounted police were there, and they took forty minutes to restore order. The match, incidentally, was won by Bolton 2-0.

SOURCE F: an early 1960s advertisement for Bovril - the traditional half-time hot drink for football fans

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the picture.

SOURCE G: from a book called ‘This Sporting Land’, a book to accompany a Thames Television programme in 1977:

Footballers in the first and second divisions have now become highly paid sportsmen. In the early sixties, the Professional Footballers Association under the guidance of Jimmy Hill, were able to force the maximum wage up to 20 pounds a week (17 pounds in the Summer). Clubs were also prevented from retaining a player against his wishes. The next step was the abolition of the maximum wage, and it is said that a star player can earn

as much in a season as Tom Finney earned in his entire career.

SOURCE H: a page from a Bristol Rovers programme which indicates who sponsors which player in the team.

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to enlarge

The Questions - Read them carefully and refer to the sources mentioned.

Assignment One: Objective 2 and 3

1. Study Source A.

What can you learn from Source A about the development of

football in the second half of the nineteenth century? (6)

2. Study Sources B and C.

How useful are Sources B and C in helping you to understand the popularity of football in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century? (10)

3. Study Sources D and E.

Use Sources D and E and your own knowledge to explain how football had changed by the 1930s. (12)

4. Study Sources F, G and H.

Do Sources G and H support the evidence of Source F about the development of football in Britain since the 1960s? Use the sources and your own knowledge to help you explain your answer. (8)

5. Study all of the Sources.

‘The growth of professionalism was the most important change in football during the twentieth century.’

Use the sources and your own knowledge to explain whether you

agree with this view of the impact of professionalism. (14)

(Total: 50 marks)

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